'UFO' sighting in night sky could have been bright star

A sighting of what she describes as a large meteoric object falling from the night sky last week has an Ophir resident Christie Sonmez perplexed.Sonmez said she's wondering whether other people saw what looked like a fireball about the size of a full moon appear in the sky at 11:45 p.m. Thursday.Restless because her cat had not come inside, Sonmez looked out a window and saw what she said Monday was a golden ball take a short flight before vanishing into the eastern horizon."As it reached the horizon, I had the impression the light was swelling but there was no sound," Sonmez said. "I lifted the window to see if there were sirens or some kind of response but there was nothing."The object had no observable tail and the time it appeared in view was very fast, she said.The Grass Valley private-school teacher said the object traveled about 60 degrees from south to north. This was the first time she had observed anything similar in the sky, she said.The National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle has been fielding a plethora of questions and reports on objects in the sky in recent weeks because of the presence of both Sirius, a bright star visible in the evening and nighttime sky, and the planet Venus, currently visible in the eastern sky before sunrise."We've been flooded, absolutely flooded by reports of Sirius sightings," said Center Director Peter Davenport. "What they see is a bright star."Sirius can be identified by its location, approximately 10 degrees to the left of the constellation Orion. It appears to rise in the eastern sky, beginning in the early evening. It proceeds across the southern sky throughout the night.Davenport said the Auburn-area sighting is intriguing because of the details Sonmez has provided, including its size.With reports of objects, Davenport said one of the center's main roles is ruling out known possibilities.Another possibility for many California sightings would be a rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, near Santa Maria. A Titan IV missile on Oct. 19 was the last launch at the site. The base's Website lists no launch last Thursday. A Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile test is slated for midnight Thursday.The Vandenberg launches could be ruled out because they take place in the south and western sky from Auburn, with test missiles aimed toward the Pacific Ocean, Davenport said.The center's hotline lights up whenever a missile launch takes place, he added.If people want to report their sighting to the National UFO Reporting Center, they should write out a detailed description using the center's online sighting report form as a guide and fill out the short questionnaire. Witness contact information will be kept confidential, Davenport said.The Journal's Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.